The captain of Ghana's national football team, Asamoah Gyan, has publicly denied ritually sacrificing a rapper friend.

The former Sunderland striker was accused of having killed local rapper Theophilus Tagoe, known as Castro, after the singer and his girlfriend were reported to have drowned in a jet ski accident while they were on holiday with Gyan at his resort in Ada, southern Ghana.

The two bodies have not been found yet, sparking allegations in Ghana that Gyan used Castro's body in a ritual for financial gain.

Gyan's family organised a press conference on Wednesday to dismiss the allegations.

A statement read by lawyer Kissi Agyabeng said: "We have been silent while these wild allegations and rumours have been peddled in the media.

"We have been silent not because we are concealing anything or that we do not feel the need to fully state what, from our reckoning, had happened in Ada. We have been silent because we did not want to interfere with police investigations.

"In our painful silence, we have been totally dismayed by the fact that the platform was provided for the peddling of these wild and ludicrous allegations and rumours against us. Those to whom the platform was provided offered no evidence whatsoever to back their statements. And indeed, the allegation of spiritual sacrifice can by no stretch of the imagination be propped up."

The statement added: "We take the opportunity and state without the slightest doubt in our minds that we are not blamable for the disappearance of Castro and Janet Bandu. We had no hand in that occurrence. We have no moral or legal culpability whatsoever. None of us rode out into the open estuary with Castro and Janet Bandu. Castro rode out there on his own volition and none of us have the slightest idea as to what happened to them.

"We have only been guess working and conjecturing and making what appears to us to be intelligent deductions – in light of the facts available to us, especially the fact that when they rode out on the jet ski Janet Bandu was not wearing a life jacket ... We are in unimaginable pain and shock and we will give anything to Castro and Janet back."